Yesterday morning we got up at the not unheard of but not attractive hour of 6am, bundled ourselves in the car and drove to Ikea.
For anyone wondering why on earth someone would get up at 6 to go to Ikea it wasn’t an early bird sale, we live roughly five hundred kilometres from the nearest store.

The trip looked a little like this.

A bit of a monotonous drive littered with road kill and not a lot else, except a yarn bombed tree.

Even more impressive is the fact that the tree was a hundred kilometres from town. A couple of hours driving later and we spotted this shoe tree.

We made an agreement before we arrived that there would be no fighting in Ikea, we get in get the table kitchen and go. This could have been tested when we saw the Nexus Birch cabinets in the flesh, they looked plasticky and awful, not a look I want in our kitchen even on a budget. Our options were to pick something else or return home without a kitchen and do the long trek at another time when we figured out what we wanted, so option one it was.

We wandered around with a fidgety toddler and looked at the display kitchens. The Abstrakt range is definitely my personal favourite. The black was gorgeous, glossy and mirror like, but I was afraid with aforementioned toddler that they would constantly look like the smudgy mess that is my iPad screen. I do not have the energy to wipe kitchen cabinets down every other hour. The grey was lovely too but I felt that it didn’t really work with what I am picturing for our benches and didn’t really catch my eye in the way that our final choice did.

We incredibly surprisingly to me, opted for the Abstrakt Glossy White after startlingly little deliberation. I may or may not have suffered from buyers stress since. I know that whatever we do with these cabinets will be lovely but I honestly hadn’t put together any kind of plan or inspiration for a white kitchen.

We put our order in with the lovely kitchen “co-worker”, went to the registers and paid for it, went to the picking area and then the customer service counter in order to get our $200 gift card that the register “co-worker” didn’t know to give us. Which came in handy to pay for bits and pieces we picked up including our new bathroom sink. We then sat and waited for our kitchen order to be prepared, and waited and waited and tried to entertain a toddler who was incredibly over being cooped up.

Most of the time sitting waiting was me silently praying that I had measured correctly and that all of the boxes would fit in our teeny tiny hatchback. When the order was wheeled out I may have said ‘holy fuck’. Because well this is what came out.

I began to seriously doubt my sanity and aptitude for spatial relations.

Fortunately we have extensive experience in over packing cars for long distance trips.

We made it home safe and exhausted and in one piece, with our 60 ready to assemble kitchen components. And for now I leave you tired, somewhat incoherent and a little surprised that I impulse bought a white kitchen.

Yesterday morning we got up at the not unheard of but not attractive hour of 6am, bundled ourselves in the car and drove to Ikea.For anyone wondering why on earth someone would get up at 6 to go to Ikea it wasn’t an early bird sale, we live roughly five hundred kilometres from the nearest store.

The trip looked a little like this.

A bit of a monotonous drive littered with road kill and not a lot else, except a yarn bombed tree.

Even more impressive is the fact that the tree was a hundred kilometres from town. A couple of hours driving later and we spotted this shoe tree.

We made an agreement before we arrived that there would be no fighting in Ikea, we get in get the table kitchen and go. This could have been tested when we saw the Nexus Birch cabinets in the flesh, they looked plasticky and awful, not a look I want in our kitchen even on a budget. Our options were to pick something else or return home without a kitchen and do the long trek at another time when we figured out what we wanted, so option one it was.

We wandered around with a fidgety toddler and looked at the display kitchens. The Abstrakt range is definitely my personal favourite. The black was gorgeous, glossy and mirror like, but I was afraid with aforementioned toddler that they would constantly look like the smudgy mess that is my iPad screen. I do not have the energy to wipe kitchen cabinets down every other hour. The grey was lovely too but I felt that it didn’t really work with what I am picturing for our benches and didn’t really catch my eye in the way that our final choice did.

We incredibly surprisingly to me, opted for the Abstrakt Glossy White after startlingly little deliberation. I may or may not have suffered from buyers stress since. I know that whatever we do with these cabinets will be lovely but I honestly hadn’t put together any kind of plan or inspiration for a white kitchen.

We put our order in with the lovely kitchen “co-worker”, went to the registers and paid for it, went to the picking area and then the customer service counter in order to get our $200 gift card that the register “co-worker” didn’t know to give us. Which came in handy to pay for bits and pieces we picked up including our new bathroom sink. We then sat and waited for our kitchen order to be prepared, and waited and waited and tried to entertain a toddler who was incredibly over being cooped up.

Most of the time sitting waiting was me silently praying that I had measured correctly and that all of the boxes would fit in our teeny tiny hatchback. When the order was wheeled out I may have said ‘holy fuck’. Because well this is what came out.

I began to seriously doubt my sanity and aptitude for spatial relations.

Fortunately we have extensive experience in over packing cars for long distance trips.

We made it home safe and exhausted and in one piece, with our 60 ready to assemble kitchen components. And for now I leave you tired, somewhat incoherent and a little surprised that I impulse bought a white kitchen.

I’ve been slowly planning our kitchen renovation since before we moved in. At first I leant towards safe white bright kitchens. But as I plan on painting all of our walls white I think that’s not for the best.

My next thought was black cabinets which I love, but as we are on a budget and looking at an Ikea kitchen I really couldn’t find a black I liked.

Yesterday however inspiration struck in my favourite local shop Fine & Sunny. I was ogling the Mud Australia teapot as usual and I realized that it was not black as I had thought before but slate grey part Matt part Gloss. On arriving home another Ikea search began and I found the Abstrakt Glossy Grey. An almost perfect match for the Mud colour way.

I don’t have a focused shot of the teapot but this tiny jug is the same colour way.

So hopefully before Christmas I’ll have my new kitchen with grey cabinets, concrete counters, mosaic tile and an oven with an accurate temperature. Maybe that nice teapot will find a home in the kitchen that it started.

I’ve been slowly planning our kitchen renovation since before we moved in. At first I leant towards safe white bright kitchens. But as I plan on painting all of our walls white I think that’s not for the best.
My next thought was black cabinets which I love, but as we are on a budget and looking at an Ikea kitchen I really couldn’t find a black I liked.

Yesterday however inspiration struck in my favourite local shop Fine & Sunny. I was ogling the Mud Australia teapot as usual and I realized that it was not black as I had thought before but slate grey part Matt part Gloss. On arriving home another Ikea search began and I found the Abstrakt Glossy Grey. An almost perfect match for the Mud colour way.

I don’t have a focused shot of the teapot but this tiny jug is the same colour way.

So hopefully before Christmas I’ll have my new kitchen with grey cabinets, concrete counters, mosaic tile and an oven with an accurate temperature. Maybe that nice teapot will find a home in the kitchen that it started.

I’m back on the fence with my kitchen design. The layout will remain unchanged but I feel that while I love the idea of a grey glossy kitchen it’s not very sympathetic to the house. This was cemented by the receipt of my sample tiles from Academy tiles (who have fantastic customer service). While the triangle tiles are gorgeous, I really found that the high gloss of the black was more overbearing than dramatic. It turns out I’m more of a matte and earthy girl than a bold out there lady.

This morning I had a brief mental dalliance with Kaboodle kitchens from Bunnings, which was exhausting as trying to figure out their price structure is stupidly complicated. It doesn’t seem worth it as they lack some of the great options Ikea have.

So obviously I went back to the Ikea website, with a small detour through Freedom’s range (gorgeous kitchens no prices), a fleeting look at all white had me for a second before I remembered just how dirty it would always be. Then my eyes were caught by the Sofielund range, with it’s hint of grey and horizontal grain.

Which would be gorgeous with soft grey concrete benches

Like the shell of this kitchen

These gorgeous Star matte white tiles, from Academy Tiles two thirds of the way up the window on the rear wall.

White Laminex compact for the wrap around dining bench and baking station bench top.

I’ve been slowly planning our kitchen renovation since before we moved in. At first I leant towards safe white bright kitchens. But as I plan on painting all of our walls white I think that’s not for the best.

My next thought was black cabinets which I love, but as we are on a budget and looking at an Ikea kitchen I really couldn’t find a black I liked.

Yesterday however inspiration struck in my favourite local shop Fine & Sunny. I was ogling the Mud Australia teapot as usual and I realized that it was not black as I had thought before but slate grey part Matt part Gloss. On arriving home another Ikea search began and I found the Abstrakt Glossy Grey. An almost perfect match for the Mud colour way.

I don’t have a focused shot of the teapot but this tiny jug is the same colour way.

So hopefully before Christmas I’ll have my new kitchen with grey cabinets, concrete counters, mosaic tile and an oven with an accurate temperature. Maybe that nice teapot will find a home in the kitchen that it started.